If I were to just say how many stars I would give it 5/5, but with the Rubric I gave it 4.5/5

Story – The name of the man in the sketch is Filmore, which matches the name of the Recreation Centre that gets turned into Whit’s End in this episode.Connie is once again late, and mistakes Tom who was under the sink for Whit. He tells her that Whit is at the cemetery. Connie is surprised when she hears that Jenny was the one who had the idea for Whit’s End. Tom says that he first got to know Whit when Jenny was trying to convince them “not to wreck the Rec building.” Phillip Glossman asks Jenny if the Centre has any real historical value.

“Yes, well I suppose that sentimental value is worth something. But as a piece of true history, the building is in fact quite worthless.”

Phillip Glossman

Jenny agrees. Tom says that the meeting will recess for ten minutes. Whit is encouraging Jenny. Whit asks Jenny what’s the matter because she looks pale, and hasn’t gotten over a soar throat that she’s had for a month. He asks if it is worth it for a piece of old real estate. He says that he understands Glossman’s point of view, from a business perspective.

“I declare, am I going to have to fight you and City Hall?!”

Jenny Whittaker

They both laugh. David Harley has come instead of Sheriff Moorhead. He tells them that he’s actually not quite yet an officer, but still a cadet. In the next scene, he is making a speech in which he says that most juvenile delinquents are young people. Glossman says that there isn’t enough evidence to keep the building. Jenny is making a case that the children of Odyssey need a place where they can just be children. Phillip Glossman has a letter from Webster Development, who plan to build a shopping centre. We learn in the Blackgaard Chronicles books that Webster Development is owned by Regis Blackgaard.Jenny is just asking the people to “please not let this happen” and faints on the stage. The doctor tells Whit that Jenny is in serious trouble in the next scene. He says that if the Strep virus settles in the kidney, it can be very dangerous. If her soar throat was taken care of sooner, she could have easily been treated.

“I’m afraid it’s gone too far […] there’s nothing more we can do.”

Doctor

Jenny tells Whit that it looks like she won’t be able to save the recreation centre anymore when he came into her room. They talk about when their children were growing up. Jenny tells him that she loves him, and these are the last words we hear from her. I actually thought the episode ended here, because I forgot about the next part until Chris says that it will continue “right after this”.After the commercial break, Connie says that it seems like everything happened so fast. No one saw much of Whit after Jenny died, Tom explains. The city council put the Filmore Recreation Centre discussion off for a month. Tom and David went to visit Whit. Tom calls him “Mr. Whittaker”. They asked if he would want to continue in the fight to save the centre. Tom explains that his father helped build the Rec centre. He says that Mr. Glossman has a lot of ideas to help the town make more money, but Jenny’s heart was in the right place. Whit says that the cause they wanted to involve Jenny in is what killed her. He then wants them to leave.In the next scene, Whit goes to see the Rec centre. He meets a girl that says she won’t be able to play there much longer. She’s sad that they always tear down all the “fun places”. Whit asks her what she thinks of the mall and it’s video arcade, and she says that it’s OK but she likes the Filmore Centre better. Then her mother calls her by her name, Jenny.

“Jenny. That’s my name.”

Jenny

Whit complients her name. She says bye to him and the building. He says he wouldn’t be too sure about that. In the next scene, Tom is saying that Glossman’s motion was carried. He says that he would like to immediately accept Webster Development’s offer because there are no other bidders. Whit comes into the room and says that the Universal Press Foundation of Chicago is purchasing the rec centre and it’s adjoining land for $3,000,000. He is asked what the UPF wants to do with the centre. He explains that it will be a place where “kids of all ages can just be kids”. Glossman is unhappy, and Whit challenges him that what he wanted was for it to be sold. Phillip Glossman unhappily agrees.Tom tells Connie that Whit has never earned a penny from Whit’s End. Whit comes back and Connie hugs him and says,

“You’re a really incredible man, Mr. Whittaker!”

Connie

Chris simply reads the credits.

Humour – I gave it a hundred, just because it would be completely unfair to give it less because it wasn’t trying to be funny.

Moral – I gave it a lower rating, because in my opinion this isn’t like episodes that have solid, easy to identify morals (for example, Promises, Promises which even has it in the name). Instead it gives a good story. This isn’t to say there is nothing to take away from it, you could learn about dealing with loss from Whit’s experience with Jenny’s death. Just because it’s not on the nose doesn’t mean it’s bad. In fact, even though I gave it an eighty-five, I quite like it.

Continuity – In this episode, Whit makes an offer to buy the building and it’s adjoining land. In later episodes, we learn that the city owns the land that Whit’s End is on. I don’t have a problem with this for two reasons:

Maybe UPF didn’t end up buying the land, even though they had originally intended to.

If this can’t be explained, then the episodes at fault would be the later ones, not this one.

Characters – In this episode, Tom is a lot more competent than in previous episodes. He’s actually smart, not just a humour character.

Music – I still can’t get enough of that good old theme! There’s a nostalgic sounding intro to the actual episode. John Campbell does some good sad score for the first part with Jenny dying.

Story – Chris simply introduces the episode by stating that it is the conclusion to A Member of the Family. Jana is explaining to Whit that Monty said he wants to stay with Whit because he loves him more than Jana. He explained that he had spanked Monty, and Jana doesn’t like it. He says that whatever she’s been doing hasn’t been working. He then apologizes that he should have phrased it better when he gets a bad reaction from Jana.

Tom says that he’s going to miss Monty. He asks if there has always been trouble between Whit and Jana. He asks why he’s so unreasonable. Whit gets a little angry at Tom when he probes. Whit apologizes, Tom says he shouldn’t have kept asking, but Whit says that it’s fine. He keeps on talking.

“When it comes to dealing with my daughter, I’m fresh out of ideas!”

Whit

In the next scene, Jana is talking about all the things that he’s criticized of her. After their argument, Jana calls for Monty. He doesn’t respond, so she looks upstairs. She finds that he isn’t there.

After a commercial break, Jana and Whit are reporting a missing child. The sheriff, Fred is his name, says that he caught Monty breaking into Whit’s house through a window.

“One week with you and he turns into the neighborhood vandal!”

Jana Whittaker-Dowd

Monty appears for the first time in this episode. Jana is talking to him about the broken window. Monty asks about Whit and Jana’s fight. Whit comes in and and says that Jana loves him more than anyone in the world. Whit says that he hasn’t finished the conversation with Monty yet.

Whit asks if he can tell Jana a story. He says he wants to tell it before they get into a fight again. He explains about how after Jerry died, 14-year-old Jana got involved in anti-war protests and her mother buried herself in volunteer work. Jason was able to cope better than the others because he was younger. Ever since then him and Jana have gotten more distant. They then both agree that they want to get to know each other better. Jana wants him to give her a “real” hug. Monty comes and joins the hug. Jana gives him his punishment for breaking the window.

Jana says that maybe Monty and his sister can come to Odyssey for a vacation soon. Whit says that they happen to be standing in the best guesthouse in town, but it’s pretty exclusive: you have to know someone to get into it. Monty says,

Monty: “I know you, Grandpa. Does that count?”

Whit: “Yeah, that counts! *chuckles*”

The episode fades out on Whit’s chuckles, and Chris does the wrap-up.

Humour – This episode wasn’t especially funny, and I wouldn’t blame it for that. It wasn’t trying to be funny.

Moral – The moral remains the same as that of the previous episode, which I liked.

Acting – Hal Smith as Whit getting angry at Jana was great!

Continuity – Jana and Whit’s relationship does get better, though slowly, as seen in The Mortal Coil, Part 2 (Jana is worried about Whit, even though she is mad at him at the same time) and Between the Lines, Parts 1 and 2 (They don’t have as blown-out of an argument as in this episode). I would like to see more development for Jana, and more between her and Whit. Having a character that can show the other side of Whit is a good choice, but I think that she hasn’t quite lived up to her potential.

Characters – The characters are the same as Part 1, though this time the episode is centered around Whit and Jana with the side characters being Monty and Tom. Last time Tom was the only side character.

Believability – Monty stealing money from Whit after Whit had taken away his (in this episode we find out it was from his own savings account) money is a lot more believable than Monty breaking a window. I’m not sure if it was Whit’s house, or Whit’s End. I think it might actually be Whit’s End, as that’s what they said at the end, though when Sheriff Fred called it Whit’s place I thought he was referring to his house.

Sound design – Nothing popped out at me for sound design this episode. It was just there.

Music – The sad music intro was good. I always like it when they use different music for the intros, though they can’t overdo it.

If you found anything wrong with this or any other post, or especially liked a post, please let me know! You can use the comments below or contact me.

If Two-Bit Matthews in S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders reminded you of Two-Bit, who was acted by Zach Callison who used to voice Matthew

If you read The Outsiders because it was featured on the cover of a Clubhouse Magazine that also had a picture of Morrie on it

If when you heard Ephesians 4:25 in church you did a double take

If you created a Gravatar / WordPress.com account so that you could comment on AIO blogs

If you’ve ever put on a Chris wrap-up when you couldn’t fall asleep (just so no one gets the wrong idea, this is because many people listen to an episode before going to sleep and, obviously, they end with Chris’s voice)

If you have a fear of staplers

If the majority of your online interactions take place on AIO-themed sites

If you’ve ever tried to convince someone to try out an evangelical Christian audio drama created for 8-12 year-olds – and they don’t even know what an audio drama is.

If you learned how to use Wikipedia from the AIO Wiki

If trucking companies and mind control have something in common to you (if you don’t know what I mean, see here)

I was working on this before Lee Acim released his latest trailer. Hopefully I’m getting better at this, but feel free to let me know what I can do better next time. Oh, and sorry, for some reason Audacity put a long pause between the trailer and Phil Lollar saying when The Rydell Revelations releases in the club. Anyway, here it is:

I’ve taken this preview/teaser from the following image, which was posted on Abigail Geiger’s blog and features page 20 of the script of episode #901 of AIO, For a Song. If you can make out some more things or have corrections to make, put them in the comments!

Scene 8 – Inside the Odyssey High School, in the hallway

Jules storms up to Valerie, who is outside her locker.

Jules: Valerie!

Valerie: Jules! What brings you to my unworthy locker this afternoon?

Jules: You stole my phone!

Valerie: Don’t be a drama queen. Madison found it in the lunchroom a few hours ago.

Jules: And you set up a fake page on Facebase to make it look like I was blabbing on my fans!

Valerie: <gasps> You mean that wasn’t you? I figured since you put links up on your music page that —

Jules: I didn’t put any links on my page! You did that by using my password <indistinguishable> how did you even get into my phone?

Album 69 is confirmed to be titled “Best Kept Secrets” and will answer our pressing questions about Morrie Rydell. Here’s the blurb:

Long-held secrets are uncovered and major revelations are commonplace in Adventures in Odyssey Album 69: Best Kept Secrets. Listeners have long wondered about Morrie Rydell’s plans for the kids in Odyssey. All will be revealed and questions will be answered in these episodes. Elsewhere, Jules’s mother suddenly arrives in Odyssey to take Jules back to California, maybe for good. What will happen to Jules, her newfound musical career, and her friends back in Odyssey?

Story – Tom asks if Whit is excited. He says that he is, because he hasn’t seen his grandson in a very long time. They discuss Jana’s divorce, Monty, and Jennifer. Tom says that Monty can be a Coyote. Monty walks up and says,

“Hi Grandpa.”

Monty Whittaker

Monty brought movies and is disappointed that Whit doesn’t have a VCR. He tells Whit that he wants to be a movie director some day. In the car Tom ask Monty if he would like to be an outfielder and he says he’ll think about it.

“That kid is about the finest loser I’ve ever seen!”

Tom Riley, talking about Heather who is a good sport

Monty wants to go out to eat because Whit has frozen pizza. Whit notes that Monty doesn’t have a stomach for frozen pizza and salad, but he can sure put away the brownies. He wants to eat more brownies when Whit said he couldn’t have more. Whit gets a call that Monty left a jacket with $100 in the pocket in the Los Angeles airport.

The next day, they’re at Whit’s End. Whit says that Monty has to work for his allowance. He says he’ll pay him $3 to do a little sweeping and throw out some cardboard boxes.

“Stupid boxes! I won’t get to do anything this summer!”

Monty Whittaker

Monty calls his mother to come get him. She says that she can only come next week. He then steals $5 from the cash register to go to the movies. Whit spanks him, and then tells him a story about a boy and a dog. Monty says that he’ll try to do better.

Tom and Whit are arguing about a cake. Tom put the cake upside down on the seat in his car, and the icing got messed up. Whit tried to fix it. He finally re-writes “Coyotes” on top of the cake. Monty’s mom gets to the party and he doesn’t want to go. He says that Whit loves him more. Monty tells this to Whit, and Whit goes to talk to Jana. Part 1 ends.

“What have you done to my son!”

Jana

Humour – Not much for humour in this episode, though that part with Tom and the cake was pretty good.

Moral – This isn’t a commonly addressed problem, and was done pretty well in this episode.

Sound design – I would have liked sound effects during Whit’s story of the boy and his puppy. Maybe they knew what they were doing, and adding SFX would have changed the feel of the scene too much.